Tolpuddle 2016 Pinot Noir

Tolpuddle Vineyard was founded in 1988 by Bill Casimaty, Gary Crittenden and Tony Jordan. Owners since 2011, Martin Shaw and Michael Hill-Smith (Shaw & Smith) were on a look-and-see jaunt in Tasmania when they became smitten by Tolpuddle's Coal Valley location and mature vines, planted only to pinot noir and chardonnay. In only five vintages Tolpuddle has really established itself as one of the country's top pinots.

Campbell Mattinson The Wine Front 95 points

Michele's notes: Morello cherries and a note of baked quince. The aromas are flighty - there one minute, gone the next, morphing into something else... spicy smoke, pink roses. In the mouth the glycerol character extends the red fruit flavours, emphasises the resiny quality. Medium bodied with persistence.

George Loveless would have found it ironic that as a transported convict he ended up on the site of a modern day utopia of agriculture production. Loveless was the leader of the 'Tolpuddle Martrys', who were transported to Tasmania for founding the rather benign sounding Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers, and served part of his sentence working on a property near Richmond in Tasmania's south east. Part of that property is now Tolpuddle Vineyard.